Activity Reports

Report on Familiarization Trip of Singaporean Media

For four days beginning on May 27th, we invited Singaporean magazines and newspapers to Kansai for a familiarization trip. After the Great East Japan Earthquake the number of visitors to Japan from Singapore decreased and it still has not returned to its previous level. However, signs of recovery began last year and the Foundation seized this opportunity to attract more visitors to Kansai and held a familiarization trip again after two years.

This time, we took them to see the sweeping natural scenery of western Kansai (Tokushima prefecture, Tottori prefecture, and northwestern Hyogo prefecture), and our main goal was for them to convey that grandeur to people in Singapore. They observed whirling tides, participated in the Awa Odori dance, and observed up close magnificent natural phenomena such as Oboke Gorge and Koboke Gorge in Iya Valley, carved by the Yoshino River, the sand dunes in Tottori, and San’in Kaigan Geopark. On the final day of the trip, participants visited Universal Studio Japan, a representative leisure spot of Kansai, too.